Exploring Factors Influencing Women's Entrepreneurship in Rural Cooperatives of South Khorasan Province
Subject Areas : Regional PlanningJavad Mikaniki 1 * , Mohammad Eskandari Sani 2 , Narges Khedmati 3
1 - Department of Geography, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Birjand University. Birjand.Iran
2 - Department of Geography, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Birjand University. Birjand.Iran
3 - department of geography
Keywords: Women's Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, Rural Women's Cooperatives, Gender Gap, South Khorasan Province, Iran,
Abstract :
This study investigates the factors influencing women's entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives in South Khorasan Province, Iran. The research is applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of its research method. It employs a cross-sectional survey design and utilizes quantitative data. The research population encompasses active cooperatives engaged in women's rural cooperatives' entrepreneurship in South Khorasan Province. A total of 16 rural women's cooperatives operates in the region, with 11 being semi-active and only 5 fully active. Utilizing exploratory factor analysis, four primary factors emerged from the 68 questionnaire items: individual-psychological, educational-promotional, economic, and social. To examine the structural pattern of factors influencing women's entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives in South Khorasan Province, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted using Smart PLS software. The results indicate that among the four paths modeled, only the educational-promotional factor significantly influences the level of entrepreneurship, with a path coefficient of 0.264. The remaining modeled paths are not statistically significant. Consequently, the findings suggest that in the current context of the examined model, only the educational-promotional factor exerts a meaningful impact on entrepreneurship.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
Women’s entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives plays a vital role in empowering women and promoting economic growth in various regions. Rural cooperatives provide opportunities for women’s economic participation, skill development, and social advancement, helping to improve their incomes, self-confidence, and overall quality of life. By offering education, support, and a platform for collective action, these cooperatives strengthen women’s capacities and contribute to gender equality and sustainable development. Despite challenges related to social norms and institutional barriers, women engaged in cooperative entrepreneurship often experience economic, social, psychological, and organizational empowerment, which shows the resilience and effectiveness of these community-based initiatives. This study seeks to identify the key factors that influence women’s entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives in South Khorasan Province. It focuses on five active women’s cooperatives in the region — Alzahra Mod, Khrashhad, Narjes Alghorat, Mehr Afarin Sarayan, and Sarcheh Tazian — which together include 1,382 members. These cooperatives illustrate the significant role that rural women’s entrepreneurship plays in supporting local economies and creating better livelihoods for women and their families. By understanding the factors that enable or hinder women’s entrepreneurial activities in these cooperatives, this research aims to highlight practical pathways to strengthen rural women’s participation in economic development and community well-being. Overall, rural cooperatives are important mechanisms for empowering women, enhancing their social status, and building more resilient and equitable rural communities.
Methodology
In terms of its nature, the current research is of the type of exploratory quantitative research, and in terms of its purpose, it is placed in the field of applied research. The statistical population includes 1382 women members of active rural women's cooperatives in South Khorasan province, which included five participations among the 16 cooperatives in the province.
The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 68 items on the Likert scale. According to the nature and approach of the research, the exploratory factor analysis technique in the Spss software environment and the Smart pls software have been used to examine the structural pattern between the influencing factors on the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives in South Khorasan.
Results and Discussion
The rotated matrix of factor loadings of each of the variables was extracted in 4 factors, which shows that the first factor (personal-psychological), the second factor (educational-promotional), the third factor (economic), and the fourth factor extracted (social) because the article is too long to avoid mentioning the tables. Factors affecting the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives include four individual factors - psychological, economic, social, educational, and promotional.
Since the average of the individual-psychological factor is close to 4, it can be concluded that, according to most people, these factors greatly influence the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives. To analyze the relationship between the factors influencing women's entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives, the level of entrepreneurship was measured in the form of 10 items. Spearman's correlation test was used to examine the relationship between the level of entrepreneurship and the factors influencing entrepreneurship in rural women's cooperatives. Table 4 is stated. According to the mentioned table, regarding the relationship between the variable of entrepreneurship rate and the influencing factors on the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives, since it is <0.05 in all the investigated relationships, it can be concluded that the variable of the entrepreneurship level has a positive and significant relationship with the influencing factors. It has the establishment of rural women's cooperatives.
Conclusion
Literature related to entrepreneurship policies leads to the development of women entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship policies are supposed to focus on the entrepreneur and, therefore, are directed to encourage socially and economically productive activities by individuals to perform independent activities in business. However, the implementation of policies should be aimed at meeting the needs of entrepreneurs, such as business advice, training, access to capital, and programs - also in the cooperative sector, which is considered collective work. It is necessary to increase the rate of entrepreneurship and economic growth. However, it is insufficient, which of course requires the quality of growth, sustainability, inclusiveness, inclusion, and gender equality.With these interpretations, entrepreneurial policies and policies of small and medium cooperative companies should both seek to create two different types of effects on the economy. First, they improve the performance of economic factors from a gender perspective. Achieving the goal of women's entrepreneurship policy requires effective and inclusive participation that can address the policies and institutional constraints that currently prevent or exclude most women small entrepreneurs from accessing public goods and business opportunities. Achieving women's economic empowerment requires the right policies, a comprehensive approach, and long-term commitment, and specific gender perspectives must be integrated into the design of the policy scene and planning. In South Khorasan women's cooperatives, the influencing factors on women's entrepreneurship in rural cooperatives were identified, including four "personal-psychological" "educational-promotional", "economic", and "social" factors. The individual-psychological factor has the highest factor load, which shows the importance of this factor in tending to entrepreneurial activities. The results of Spearman's test to investigate the relationship between entrepreneurship and the factors influencing the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives showed that the variable of entrepreneurship has a positive and significant relationship with the factors influencing the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives. In the end, structural equation modeling through smart PLS software to examine the structural pattern of influencing factors on the entrepreneurship of rural women's cooperatives in South Khorasan showed that only the path of the educational-promoting factor to entrepreneurship is significant and the rest of the paths drawn in this model are not significant. Considering the importance of extension training in the process of entrepreneurship, it is suggested to strengthen the educational and extension infrastructures for effective training in the field of entrepreneurship of rural women. It can be concluded that education is more necessary in South Khorasan, especially in traditional geographical areas, and the suggestions are based on this.
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